By Ben Birnbaum Turkey\u2019s foreign policy vision is best captured by its foreign minister\u2019s motto: \u201cZero problems with neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n But with the predominantly Muslim country facing escalating crises with Syria, Iran, Iraq and Israel, Turkish opposition leaders say the rhetoric has not matched the reality.<\/p>\n \u201cThe claim of the government was to pursue a policy of having \u2018zero problems with neighbors,\u2019 and now we are having all sorts of problems with all our neighbors,\u201d said Faik Oztrak, deputy chairman of Turkey\u2019s Republican People’s Party (CHP).<\/p>\n In recent months, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s government has:<\/p>\n \u2022 Taken a lead role in pressuring Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign, imposing sanctions on Syria and hosting refugees and opposition leaders.<\/p>\n \u2022 Agreed to host NATO missile defense radar installations intended to protect Europe from Iranian missiles. Iran, in response, has threatened to take out the Turkish sites if the U.S. or Israel attack its nuclear program.<\/p>\n \u2022 Launched airstrikes on Kurdish rebel safe havens in northern Iraq in retaliation for terrorist attacks carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, inflaming Turkish border tensions with Iraq.<\/p>\n \u2022 Expelled the Israeli ambassador after the Jewish state refused to apologize for a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound convoy that killed nine Turkish nationals.<\/p>\n The conflicts are a sharp departure from last year, when Turkey\u2019s relations with many of its neighbors were at a new high.<\/p>\n CHP elder statesman Faruk Logoglu, who served as Turkey\u2019s ambassador to the U.S. from 2001 to 2005, said his country\u2019s foreign policy has failed, adding that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu \u201ccannot point to a single accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Logoglu reserved particularly harsh criticism for the Erdogan administration\u2019s Syria policy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe agree with the government\u2019s goals but not the approach,\u201d he said, railing against sanctions that he argued hurt ordinary Syrians and Turkish businesses.<\/p>\n He also claimed that the government\u2019s \u201cunfettered support for the opposition,\u201d including providing refuge to its leaders, is \u201ccondemning Syria to a protracted civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Davutoglu responded to criticism of the government\u2019s Syria policy last week, saying he is still committed to the zero-problems motto.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we cannot remain silent if one of our neighbors oppress its people,\u201d the foreign minister said.<\/p>\n via Turkey’s foreign policy in free fall – Washington Times.<\/p>\n More : https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2011\/dec\/20\/turkeys-foreign-policy-in-free-fall\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Turkey\u2019s foreign policy in free fall Problems with four neighbors By Ben Birnbaum The Washington Times Turkey\u2019s foreign policy vision is best captured by its foreign minister\u2019s motto: \u201cZero problems with neighbors.\u201d But with the predominantly Muslim country facing escalating crises with Syria, Iran, Iraq and Israel, Turkish opposition leaders say the rhetoric has not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[922],"tags":[2053,3007],"class_list":["post-48008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-turkish-foreign-policy","tag-zero-problems-foreign-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Washington Times<\/span><\/p>\n